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How Nepal Government takes norms and rates

Short answer

Government agencies use published norms specifying materials, labour, and equipment per unit. Material/labour rates are taken from the annual District Rate or market survey with transport added. Direct cost is summed, then 15% contractor's overhead and profit is added; VAT and contingency are added in the estimate.

Explain in detail how Nepal Government agencies take norms and rates for rate analysis.

Norms

Government agencies in Nepal (DUDBC, Department of Roads, DWSSM, DoLI, local governments) use published norms for rate analysis. A norm tells, for one unit of an item of work (such as 1 m³ of 1:4 brickwork), the quantity of each material (with wastage), the days of skilled and unskilled labour, and the equipment hours needed. These norms are standardized so that all offices analyse an item in the same way.

Rates

  • Every district has a District Rate (published yearly by the District Rate Fixation Committee) giving the prices of materials at the district centre or at the source, and the daily wages of the labour, with the transport rates.
  • If a material is not listed, its rate is found by a market survey.
  • Transport cost for the lead from the source or district centre to the site is added to the material rate (by road, mule, or porter, as the case may be).

Rate calculation

  1. Cost of each resource = norm quantity x rate (including transport).
  2. Sum of all costs is the direct cost.
  3. Contractor's overhead and profit, 15% of the direct cost, is added to get the unit rate.
  4. VAT of 13% is added in the estimate, and contingency separately.

These rates are then used in the engineer's estimate under the Public Procurement Act.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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